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I was going through the PAX Prime 2011 program guide one last time before committing it to the circular file when a paper (picture right) fell out.

Yes, mofo. That paper is hand written. By me. Barbaric right? So what exactly is this artifact?

There was a panel that I attended called “The Sorting Workshop”. I was intrigued both by the Harry Potterness of the title and the fact that it was a writing panel at a game convention. I wanted to be sorted! Instead of being sorted into magical houses, however, the goal of the panel was to sort you into your best games related writing occupation (Journalism, PR, or Community Management). Let me quote, verbatim, the description of the panel as found in the program guide:

Unicorn TheatreThe Sorting Workshop3:00pm – 4:00pmWriting Workshop: Journalism, PR, Community Managers Industry vets inflict writing on attendees to determine where in the industry an apsiring writer belongs. A game developer and a publicist kick things off with a 10-minute product demo that you get 20 minutes to write up. Then a panel of journalists, community managers, and publicists sort your writing samples into which field it aught to be in based on tone, content, and accuracy. You won’t be graded, but you might be mocked with dramatic readings of your sample. Whatever happens, you’ll have a chance to make industry contacts and learn the difference between writing for journalism, for community management, for marketing and for PR. Bring pens, pencils and a surface to write on (we recommend the PAX guide) – We’ll provide the rest.

The thing that made this panel awesome were the panelists. All of the other panels that I attended at PAX were fluffy, comforting workshops that tried to make you feel good about yourself and your lack of ability. I enjoyed that these professionals just kind of breathed real life into the presentation. (They also weren’t afraid to brandish expletives. It was fucking rad)

We ran out of time before individuals could get properly sorted… so I will never know whether I’m destined for PR fame or community management… As a career software engineer, though, I suppose it doesn’t matter much in the long run… Still.. if you happened to have been on that panel and are reading this… drop me a note!

This year, I was fortunate enough to inherit a 3-day pass to PAX Prime 2011, courtesy of my long time friend and compatriot, Nick Hernandez.

Even though I’ve seen the various PAX episodes on PAtv, but nothing prepared me for the sheer magnitude of the expo.

To give you an example of what I’m talking about, here is a picture of the demo area for the game Prototype 2. You can see, they didn’t just put up a projector to demo stuff… they built an entire helicopter prop with sounds… and this was on the tame side as far as booths go.

Probably the most extreme example of commercial promotion of a francise was Halo Fest. Basically, it was a mini convention …. within a convention! There were complex dioramas.. scale vehicles like this Warthog.. and TONS of space dedicated do game play.

This isn’t to say that PAX is not just some orgy of AAA title marketing… there are a LOT of for-the-community things… like the Classic Console Freeplay. Ever want to play an original NES game but couldn’t afford it as a kid? This is the place for you.

All in all, my PAX experience was awesome. I am totally going back next year. Period.